Jon K. Broadbooks: A primer on how the SJ-R decides on endorsements

After hours of interviews and pages of barely legible notes scribbled in notebooks, the endorsement season is finally over.

After hours of interviews and pages of barely legible notes scribbled in notebooks, the endorsement season is finally over.

As you’ll see from the recap of endorsements, the editorial board has been busy making some choices about the best candidates to lead in the terms ahead. I get a lot of questions about the process this time of year, so as we head toward Tuesday I offer answers to the most common of them.

1. Who do we interview? We interview candidates in the highest profile or most interesting races. We conduct the interviews toward the end of the campaign season when most issues have emerged. We don’t interview candidates in every race. For example, there are 29 members of the Sangamon County Board, and while not all of them face opposition on Tuesday that’s a lot of candidates to interview in a short span of time.

2. What are the interviews like? Most are collegial, although some candidates get testy when they don’t want to answer questions. In a decade of serving on editorial boards, I’ve never seen a candidate storm out in the middle of a meeting. Most office-seekers understand there’s always going to be give and take, whether they are talking to the board or voters.

The sessions last about an hour and the issues run the gamut from fiscal issues to overall guiding philosophies. We feel it’s important to sit at the same table with the candidates and get a sense of the person behind the rhetoric.

3. Are the choices difficult? In some races the choice is a no-brainer. One of the candidates will be so woefully inadequate to the task of governance at any level that we could not possibly offer an endorsement.

This season has been tougher than usual as there were many solid candidates for consideration. Several races were so evenly matched that an endorsement was difficult.

4. What’s a common theme among endorsed candidates? We prefer candidates to do more than just parrot a party line. We expect them to be able to articulate clearly why they have taken a position. The more specific a candidate gets about what they want to do if elected, the better.

We also place a premium on whether a candidate seems to be able to bridge political and ideological divides. We expect them to stand for something, but politics in its truest form is about working with others toward a common goal.

And no, we don’t have to agree with a candidate on every point.

5. Is the editorial board red or blue? Neither, really. A tally of this year’s endorsements shows five endorsements for Democrats and five for Republicans. We don’t make decisions based strictly on party affiliation. We try to look at each race through the lens of what makes the best sense.

6. Who makes the final decision? The board is not a true democracy. The publisher can override the board’s decision. I have seen this happen just twice, and neither time was at The State Journal-Register.

7. Once endorsed, always endorsed? Not necessarily. Every election cycle we begin the evaluation process anew. A candidate endorsed in one election might have a stronger challenger in the next. Candidates may fail miserably once in office, leading to an endorsement switch.

8. Do we pick people to win? Yes, but not in the sense many would think. I am amazed at how many readers keep track of the SJ-R’s endorsement batting average. Others may obsess over the win-loss column, but the editorial board really doesn’t. We know in some cases that those we endorse may not win. That’s OK. We are simply trying to guide readers toward candidates who make the most sense from the standpoint of good governance.

9. Do endorsements matter? I think they still do. That’s bolstered by how candidates use them in their advertising and still actively seek them. If editorials didn’t have any bearing at all, then why do so many people read them and comment on them?

Which leads me to one of the often-asked questions:

10. Did the editorial board ever endorse Rod Blagojevich? For the record, the SJ-R never, ever, ever endorsed Rod Blagojevich in either a primary or general election. Every year I see folks posting comments that we did.

Jon K. Broadbooks is executive editor of The State Journal-Register. He can be reached by e-mail at jon.broadbooks@sj-r.com or by telephone at 788-1505.

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